Portrait Work by Lynda Stewart

I have been completing the Portrait Painting Certificate course, with my tutor Heather Jolliffe. This is the second course that I have done, with LAC and I am really enjoying it. I am learning lots of different techniques and styles….and attempting to paint faces…something, which I was not confident to do before!

Here are two images from my Assignment.3. I was inspired to draw a woman from an African tribe, wearing a brightly coloured, traditional headdress and earrings. I felt drawn to her strong expression, and confident demeanour. I used oil pastels, drawn onto thick, smooth black card from a 12’x12′ scrap book. It was nice to work on a larger piece of paper. The oil pastels moved smoothly across the paper and I built-up areas of colour, blending it, bit by bit. The height of the head-dress seemed to give her an air of importance and I added the vivid colours to the necklace and earrings, to give a contrast to the overall picture. For the bright white highlights, on her nose, lips and earrings, I used the tip of an “Oil based Uni Paint White Marker.’

I chose to do a second oil pastel painting, on black card, and this time of an elderly Indian man, wearing a turban. I tried to make the eyes softer and gentler and then created the stubbly whiskers, with short deliberate strokes. I also added the “Uni White Paint Marker’ to give highlights to the eyes, eyebrows, edge of the nose and whiskers.

Students on the Portrait Painting Certificate Course work through guided projects designed to strengthen drawing skills, tonal awareness, colour use and expressive confidence. With structured tutor feedback throughout the course, students are supported in developing portraits that feel both technically sound and artistically individual.

You can find full details about the course here – https://www.londonartcollege.co.uk/art-courses/portrait-painting-certificate-course/

Well done to Lynda on these powerful and thoughtful portrait studies and we look forward to seeing more artwork from Lynda soon.